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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25462234">Undertale Copy #88: The Path to Yellow</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/KimberlyLikesCherries/pseuds/KimberlyLikesCherries'>KimberlyLikesCherries</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Path to Yellow [12]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Undertale (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>I know how much you like to fight, On Hiatus, So I’ll add a new problem to your night!, Uh-oh! How Unfortunate, uh-oh! How Unfortunate!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 10:28:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>18,130</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25462234</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/KimberlyLikesCherries/pseuds/KimberlyLikesCherries</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Destiny awaits.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alphys/Undyne (Undertale), Dream/Sans (OC)/Nightmare, Error/Reaper, Sans/Sans (Undertale)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Path to Yellow [12]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1706509</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>222</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>170</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Prologue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The moment the lever moved, a great white portal edged in wispy shadows tore into existence in the space besides the machine, bringing with it a gale of wind that sent papers flying and roared through the basement with a terrible rage; and with every ounce of determination in his body, Sans kept that lever firmly down. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He whipped his skull over his shoulder, desperate to be heard over the wind, “Go! I can’t hold this forever!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Needing very little prompting and only a quick backwards glance at the twins, Strings rushed against the wind with a crying Berry and shaking Chara in his arms, BB close on his heels. They were slowly followed by Grillby who was shooing Mrs. Bunns and her large family in as quickly as he could, and Ms. Faun who gave Sans a worried glance as she held the back of Monster Kid’s shirt- keeping him from tripping as the portal swallowed them all whole. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A moment later Dream, with an arm around his brother’s waist and another holding his shaking hand, slowly walked an exhausted Nightmare over. Just as they took a step through both turned to Sans with a desperate look in their lights.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t you dare get left behind!” Nightmare snarled, Dream nodding emphatically. Unfortunately, Sans wasn’t fast enough to reply past a reassuring smile before both his boys were gone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Stars, Sans really hoped he didn’t; he hadn’t gotten a chance to tell them how much he loved them yet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Blue was next, carrying the slime family in a basket while shouting encouragement to the bears and Nacarat Jester from beside the roaring hole in space, ushering them all through before entering himself (sending his own glance over to where Sans knew Ink was standing close behind himself). </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lesser Dog had Scarf Mouse’s, well, scarf in his mouth as he ran past the rest of them, dragging the small, terrified monster behind him. Sans felt a pang of regret that he would probably be the only Guard Dog to make it through the portal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Over the wind Sans could just pick out the sounds of a scuffle somewhere behind him and Ink, just out of sight range. He could hear the glitchy screech of a fax machine and a shouted string of curses that would make sailors blush, then a moment later Reaper appeared in his view dragging a crashed glitch by his arms across the tile floor. They locked lights for a second, Reaper nodding to Sans before he, too, disappeared through the portal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was just Sans and Ink now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ink patted him on the shoulder as he walked calmly past, seemingly unbothered by the chaos, “Looks like it’s my turn! See you on the other side, Brother!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sans laughed, unheard over the howling wind, “See you on the other side, Ink!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leave it to Ink to be cheerful while everyone else acted like it was the end of the world. The taller skeleton watched the tail end of that unreasonably long scarf flutter through; and then it was just Sans, alone in chaos.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn’t get to enjoy it for long as the basement room suddenly decided to groan and tilt impossibly in that moment. Sans had to quickly adjust his footing and hold on the lever or risk falling onto the tile floor and losing his hold on his only way out forever. In the corner of the basement a terrible, familiar darkness grew through a series of cracks that, with every passing moment, only got closer to Sans’ precarious position.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sans soul sank. The room had tilted </span>
  <em>
    <span>away</span>
  </em>
  <span> from the portal, and now he was on a time crunch; talk about shit luck!</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>No,</span>
  </em>
  <span> He shook his head and took a deep, shaky breath, </span>
  <em>
    <span>No, I can still do this; they’re all waiting for me!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The skeleton braced himself against the machine, knowing he’d have very little time between letting the lever go and getting to the portal before it destabilized, and painfully aware that he’d need every little advantage to make up for his newest obstacle. He closed his sockets and tried to take deep, calming breaths; mentally counting down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“You’re m-m-my best friend; did you really think-k-k I’d let you do this alone?”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“They might never say it, but those fools love you with everything they’ve got; don’t break their hearts by being stupid.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Two...</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Don’t you dare get left behind!”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“See you on the other side, Brother!”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Three!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sans pushed off into a dead sprint, sockets squinting against the wind as he tore across the tiles. He almost stumbled as something large crashed onto the floor, shaking the room, but he caught himself just in time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The hole in reality started flashing between white and black, the fifteen second warning, but it was another flash that caught his attention; a flair of red in the corner of his socket, stark against the growing depths of darkness.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His head turned automatically, and Sans’ sockets went wide as they met his little brother’s smiling visage.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Papyrus waved back at him, and somehow Sans could hear his quiet voice over the great gusts of wind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Goodbye, Sans.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The elder could feel the static pass over him as he entered the portal. With growing horror, Sans twisted in place and threw a desperate hand back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That was all it took.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“Papyrus-!”</em>
  </b>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Error Rolls In</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hi guys, as you can see I’m back from Hiatus! You guys can thank Shandycandy and Dreaming-mystic for helping me out for, like, a solid week atleast trying to get my stuff in presentable order- and for once I feel like I’m not winging it!</p><p>&gt;:3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The air was a stale, cold thing that morning. Snuggled deep under his covers, Sans the skeleton couldn’t bring himself to do more than silently groan and reach out of his warm blanket cocoon to blindly set his alarm to snooze; every part of him silently begging his hand to accidentally hit the off button instead before making it’s way back into the comfort of his bedding. Alas, 'twas not meant to be; the painfully familiar click of the large button cutting through the silent room.</p><p>Silently the skeleton hoped that he’d hit the snooze button fast enough to stop it from waking his brother, but knowing what a light sleeper Papyrus was, Sans wasn’t about to put any money on it. Still, there was always a chance; so he waited, listening intently through the dark, quiet morning hours with the echo of his alarm still ringing in his skull. It was too soon for The Core to switch the artificial lights on, and without it the room was a near suffocating pitch black. Sans felt like, if he stared into it long enough, he could almost pick out the yellow of his clothes piled on the floor, the looming shape of his overstuffed bookshelf next to his bed, the dresser flushed firmly against a far wall at his feet, and the white of a cracked skull staring into his sockets from an empty corner of his room with it’s own deep, blank voids; two black holes slowly pulling Sans in as the walls began to slowly warp and spin into darker and darker shades of black-</p><p>
  <strong>Click, click, click.</strong>
</p><p>The soft click-clack of tiny boney feet on hardwood floors was so startlingly loud in the empty air that Sans couldn’t help but flinch deeper into his comforter. He huffed at himself, wondering why that had spooked him so badly when he had been expecting it. </p><p>
  <em>Or...had there been something else scaring him...?</em>
</p><p>The small taps stopped on the other side of his door and, with a creak loud enough to wake the dead in his humble opinion, the wooden barrier opened inward, a small voice cutting through the silence.</p><p>“Brother? Are you awake?”</p><p>Sans couldn’t see his little brother’s face in the dark past a faint bit of white on an otherwise black canvas, but he knew it was probably either scrunched up the smallest bit around his nose hole as he fought off a yawn or half hidden behind an arm as his little brother rubbed the sleep from his lightless sockets.</p><p>Sans grunted and lifted the comforter with an arm, “C’mon in bro.”</p><p>Click, Click, Click, Click- and then the unmistakable groan of Sans’ mattress as a small body slid under his arm and wiggled carefully into the side of his ribs. Sans dropped his arm and pulled the little bones tighter to his side. No words were exchanged, and together the two basked in the comfort of each other’s presence while time ticked away behind their backs, a towering countdown that kept both from truly falling back into sleep.</p><p>
  <b>BWAAA- BWAAA- BWAAA-!</b>
</p><p>Sans jumped and shot an arm out over his brother’s shoulders, accidentally jostling him and ruining the quiet moment they were having; though Papyrus hardly even twitched at the disturbance. Sans stared in his general direction for a long moment before letting out a sigh.</p><p>“It’s time t’ go.” He murmured, a hand reluctantly shaking Papyrus’ shoulder in case he’d actually did managed to fall back asleep; the elder even switched his eyelights on, filling the room with a soft white glow. </p><p>Sans’ brother had not, in fact, managed such a feat; instead staring down with a small furrow of his brows at the faded patterns in the bedsheet under him. </p><p>“Can we stay like this a bit longer…?” he whispered.</p><p><em> Yes, </em> the elder wanted to say, <em> Yes, as long as you want- </em>But that wouldn’t have been true in the slightest, so Sans had to find something else to say.</p><p>“Do you want to go to work with me today?”</p><p>Papyrus looked up, obvious interest in his sockets before it quickly died.</p><p>“You’ll get in trouble for that though-” Sans was already shaking his head.</p><p>“You let me worry about that, Pap.” He made sure his tone was firm, “b’sides, I doubt they’ll tell me off for doing something I’ve already done for six years.”</p><p>“...but Undyne said-”</p><p>“Undyne isn’t your legal guardian, babybones; to hell with her opinion.” Sans said with just a hint of heat behind it, “Now, don’t worry about any of that- do you want to stay with me or would you rather try going to school?”</p><p>The younger skeleton’s face turned pensive, nervous. Sans waited silently, sitting up and crossing his legs under the thick covers with a shiver. It really was cold in here; maybe a draft? He'd have to check the window later.</p><p>“I-...I want to try going to school.” Papyrus finally muttered. Sans nodded and reached for his bedside lamp beside the alarm, feeling an unexpected jitter run through his ribs as the light flipped on. For a moment he almost felt like someone was right behind him, but when Sans whipped around it was just his curtains fluttering.</p><p>Ah, nevermind; there was his draft right there...Maybe it was time to start breakfast. </p><p>“Alright, up you go,” Sans shooed, sending discrete glances over his shoulder as his brother reluctantly shuffled out of bed. He was quick to follow, crawling out of bed and doing his best to walk slowly to his dresser instead of running like he really wanted to; and as he dug into a drawer, he tilted his head in his brother’s direction.</p><p>“So, what do you want for breakfast?” Sans asked. Hmm, yellow T-shirt or yellow T-shirt? Or maybe...gasp! A yellow T-shirt!</p><p>Okay, so maybe they weren’t all yellow; but they would be in a few minutes so it didn’t really matter what color he chose.</p><p>…Papyrus was awfully quiet.</p><p>“Bro...?” Sans looked over his shoulder then straightened up, looking around the room. His bedroom door was half open, the hall beyond a solid shade of nothing. Papyrus had left while Sans’ back was turned.</p><p>“Oh hell no.” Sans muttered, grabbing a random shirt and pair of pants before booking it out of there. He’d change in the bathroom.</p><p>The rest of the morning passed by rather uneventfully after that, though he still ended up jumping at the slightest noises until the artificial lights kicked on outside. The elder skeleton let Papyrus help him whip up the batter for pancakes and fix his lunch box; and in return, when the younger struggled to put on all his jacket layers, Sans helped his little brother get ready; reminding him to grab his backpack before they left. Soon the two skeletons were out of the house and on their way to dropping Papyrus off at the Librarby, which doubled as a school on week days. It was a cool, peaceful morning in Snowdin; The shops were just beginning to open, Grillby’s was firmly closed (as it should be), and kids were slowly making their way to class- some with escorts, some without. It was all in very stark contrast to the earlier atmosphere Sans had felt and he couldn’t have been more relieved.</p><p>As the two approached the library doors, Sans pulled Papyrus off to the side, letting other kids pass as he stopped to say his usual goodbye.</p><p>“Now, you’ve got everything? Lunch, supplies, good attitude, etcetera?” Sans asked.</p><p>Papyrus grinned up at him just the smallest bit shakily, “Check, check, check, aaaaaand check!”</p><p>Sans smiled back, “Good. And remember, if you need something-“</p><p>“-you’re at the station over by The Ruins. I know, you tell me every time!” Papyrus finished. Sans felt a familiar flair of pride in his soul.</p><p>“And as always you are correctomundo, little bro.” he praised, patting the younger’s skull, “Now, want a hug before I go?”</p><p>Papyrus nodded quickly, “Yes, please!”</p><p>Sans crouched down and pulled the kid into a hug. He let it last a good, long moment as he just enjoyed the feeling of holding his little sibling again. Papyrus was almost too big to be carried these days, and the elder found himself missing the days where he could hold the smaller skeleton for hours on end without interruption.</p><p>As the moment drawed to a close, Sans let out a loud, obviously fake snore.</p><p>“Ack! No! Brother, don’t fall asleep on me!” Papyrus complained with a small giggle, shoving at the Sans' chest as he made an even <em>more</em> obnoxious snoring sound in response, making sure it sounded as loud as possible.</p><p>“NYEH! BROTHER!” Papyrus flailed his arms out to the sides.</p><p>Sans got halfway through a giggly snore (which was mostly him just saying “snooooore” and trying to keep his face straight) before it was interrupted by a pretentious snort.</p><p>“A-hem! I see you two are having a good time, but classes have started." Papyrus' teacher, Ms. Faun, interuppted from about a foot away, "Say goodbye to your father and come in, Mr. Papyrus.”</p><p>Papyrus’ mood dropped immediately, frowning and looked down as he fidgeted with his jacket zipper. Sans’ own mood quickly began to sour as he looked up at the other monster, displeased with his brother's drastic and very uncharacteristic change in behavior.</p><p>“...go on in, Pap.” Sans said as he smiled back down at his brother, standing up with a small grunt, “Go knock their socks off, okay?”</p><p>Papyrus gave him a shaky nod and grin, taking off inside and running past Ms. Faun without a backwards glance. A moment later the deer monster started following him to the door.</p><p>“Faun.” Sans quickly called out.</p><p>Ms. Faun paused and turned around, a deep frown on her muzzle, “Yes? And please, do call me <em>Ms.</em> Faun.”</p><p>Sans frowned, “<em>Faun</em>, I just wanted to correct you on something before I left real quick-” The deer monster stiffened, feeling a strong aura pressing down on her.</p><p>“S-sir-!” She gritted out, preparing her own magic in defense; but then it was gone just as quickly as it came, the skeleton giving her a sharp, snarling grin.</p><p>“I am not Pap’s father, <em>sweetheart</em>.”</p><p>And then he left, leaving a shaking deer monster to stand alone in front of the Librarby doors. Papyrus ducked away from the window and joined the other kids in his class sitting in a circle on the old carpet.</p><hr/><p>Sentry: a soldier stationed to keep guard or to control access to a place. Otherwise known as guard, sentinel, watchman, patrol, or lookout. Personally, Sans preferred sentry; it made him sound much cooler than he actually was, and when Papyrus was learning to speak he couldn’t say his Rs very well and kept saying “Sit-tee” instead. It was great, everyone loved it.</p><p>“Yup, those were the days.” he murmured, staring off into the empty forest around him. He'd been working this job for nearly six years at this point and not a thing has changed; same rickety old station, same long, grating hours, same snow covered scenery...Actually, no; that was a lie wasn’t it? Until this year, Sans had always taken his little bones brother with him while he worked, but Papyrus had gotten old enough to go to school now and Sans couldn’t really keep him away from his education, now could he? </p><p>(Well, he'd tried; but then Undyne had to go running her mouth-)</p><p>Sans sighed and scratched the side of his skull. It had been way longer than a month since Papyrus started school and he still wasn’t used to the stillness. Turns out six years of constant exposure to a loud child leaves its mark in unexpected ways, and the forest around him had never been so...intimidating. The skeleton reached under his stand for the stack of paper he kept on a small shelf under the counter, grabbing probably two or three sheets and a pen shoved towards the back before placing them on top of the old wood countertop. The shelf was originally meant to hold paper for reports should anything of interest occur, but Sans had sort of commandeered it for his own purposes a week into his paid schedule of solitude. What can he say, the silence got to him; besides, he had four hours to kill before he could go home, might as well make those hours productive, right? Riiiiiight.</p><p>Three-fourths of his shift passed with hardly even a bird call to break the snowy ambiance when, without warning, something crashed through the trees behind Sans’ hut and tore through the clearing at high speeds, leaving a path of crushed snow and debris in it's wake.</p><p>Sans squeaked, freezing in shock as his gaze locked onto the blue-black blur rolling off towards the line of pine trees in front of him. Dumbfounded, he watched it hit one with a resounding BANG and cringed as the tree shook violently, showering down snow and pine needles; and, for a terrifying second, Sans wondered if the conifer was going to fall over. If it did, it would no doubt crush the hut- and by extension him- but then it settled back down much to his relief.</p><p>Still-<em> Holy shit. </em></p><p>A pained groan snapped him out of his funk and, with his gaze snapping back down, Sans spotted the source just in time to see an arm shoot out of the mixed snowpuff-debris combo, standing straight in the air like something out of an old B rated zombie movie- complete with twitchy fingers.</p><p>“What the fuck?!” Sans yelped, eye lights shrinking into pinpricks in his sockets. He quickly ducked down under the station's countertop and frantically searched the underside for some sort of weapon; luckily, he found one in the form of a loose board under his backside. It was buried under a thin layer of snow (probably the only reason no one had noticed it had fallen off) and Sans was quick to dig it out, clutching it tightly between both hands as he held it out in front of his chest. He could feel the tips of his fingers digging holes into the soft, rotting grain as he curled into a ball, sockets as wide as they could possibly go while his mind rushed through “<em>paNiC </em>” and “<em>What the hell do I do now?!</em>”</p><p>The poor skeleton’s soul fluttered like a hummingbird’s wings under his sternum and he swore his vision was going double through the sheer power of his shaking- or maybe he just wasn’t breathing; that’ll do it too.</p><p>Sans forced himself to inhale, just as someone loudly groaned “F’ck!” The skeleton paused, brows furrowing.</p><p>D-...did zombies...talk?</p><p>He almost smacked himself with the plank. <em> Of course not, you idiot! Zombies aren’t real! </em></p><p>Wait, but if that’s not a zombie, then...“Oh shit!” </p><p>Sans threw himself up, bonked his head rather sharply on the underside of the counter, and immediately fell back into the dirt with a quiet keen, plank dropping with a dull thud back into the snow. He stayed there for a moment, curled tightly into himself in no small bit of pain and humiliation while clutching his skull; but then he told himself to suck it up and pushed back onto his feet with only a light stumble.</p><p>(That was definitely going to bruise, no doubt about it.)</p><p>Blinking away stars, the skeleton shuffled to the back entrance of the hut and then took off around the side in a sort of speedy stumble-shimmy.</p><p>“H-hey-!” Oof, voice crack; Sans coughed and tried again, “Hey, are you okay?!” </p><p>His answer was a slightly more vehement groan and a full-length (unnerving) arm twitch. Well, that wasn’t really an answer now, was it? (Then again, did that question really deserve one when the answer was so obvious?)</p><p>The skeleton let himself slow down considerably as he got within a yard of the boney...limb…?</p><p>Sans sockets widened; <em> that </em>was a skeleton arm, which meant that this was…</p><p>“A <em> skeleton</em>.” he whispered.</p><p>A skeleton! And honest to stars skeleton that, well, sorta moved weirdly- but that didn’t matter! A skeleton, someone who wasn’t him or Papyrus, in the underground! They weren’t alone anymore, there was another who would-!</p><p>...Where-...where did they come from…? The surface…? ...were the rumors true, then?</p><p>He blinked, shaking his head (which made him wince as he was reminded that, oh yeah, he hit his head) and mentally scolding himself. <em> Help first, contemplate their existence later! </em> He reached out to the other’s arm, but as their hands connected a strange sensation fizzled up his arm, lingering in his wrist and finger joints almost painfully. It brought to mind a mild static shock and the unending, vibrating drone of The Core; so naturally, he snatched his hand back.</p><p><em> What the hell was that?! </em> Sans thought, rubbing his wrist; a frown growing on his face. Of Course it couldn’t be that easy; Fate always had to make things more complicated than they had to be, didn’t they?</p><p>Determination swelled deep inside him as Sans tentatively reached out again; gritting his teeth as their hands clasped together. It was...well, it wasn’t pleasant by any means, but once he got past the initial shock the skeleton could almost ignore the odd sensation traveling up his arm.</p><p>“Okay,” Sans breathed quietly, “Okay, we can do this, Sans. <em> You </em> can do this; just gotta-!” He grunted, interrupting himself as he shifted his grip to include both hands and pulled with everything he had against the snow. The grunt quickly turned into a long screech of frustration as not a damn thing happened- and then something suddenly gave and he was flying back into the snow- just as something hard smacked him right in the face; and as he blinked away a fresh batch of stars and sat back up, Sans realized with growing horror that <em> he was still holding the arm. </em></p><p>
  <b> <em>“WHAT THE FUCK?!”</em> </b>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Sans: oh stars oh stars oh stars-!<br/>Arm: *suddenly flails*<br/>Sans: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Shades of “Oh no.”</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Alternatively titled, “Sans can’t catch a break.”</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Landing in the thick fog that marked the border between Snowdin and Waterfall, Sans panted heavily; back hunched over under the weight of the skeleton he was transporting. </p><p>“You..are <em>definitely</em>...more work...that you’re woOoOoaaah!“</p><p>The skeleton gasped as, with a twinge, his knees gave out from under him. Squawking in horror, he shot a foot out- just in time for his kneecap to jam into the icy dirt with a resounding <em> crack. </em></p><p>Sans let out a muffled scream, teeth clenched tight as pain ziped up his hip; the weight of his passenger’s unconscious body only adding to his agony as it seemingly pressed him even further down into the frozen soil, as if punishing him for being stupid and not asking for help before starting this horrible quest- As if it wasn't enough that his poor skull has already taken two blows within the last two hours alone.</p><p>This-...this just wasn’t his day, was it?</p><p>Taking a deep, pained breath, Sans attempted to stand back up- practically screaming under his breath as he did- but quickly realized it was a mistake as his dear passenger began <em>slidding off.</em></p><p>"O-oh shit-!"</p><p>
  <em>Thud.</em>
</p><p>Sans turned just in time to see the snow poof into the air, the unnamed skeleton letting out a faint moan from between yellowed teeth as they laid in it. He groaned, falling all the way down and settling onto his heels. Now what? It had taken an entire tree and half an hour to get this useless lump onto his back! A tree!</p><p>The sentry looked around, hoping for some sort of god to finally smile upon him today and offer Sans an easy solution to getting this pile of (what he swears has to be solid metal) bones back onto his aching body; but alas! The only thing to be seen was fog, fog, and- oh yeah- snow. Sans wanted to scream, but instead he just planted his face in his hands and resisted the urge to cry.</p><p>This was not how he thought this endeavor would go; not even a little. He thought he was doing a nice, morally good thing by taking this skeleton to a place he knew wouldn't turn them away, but then why was he having so much trouble with it? Why couldn't he seem to do this one good thing? </p><p>As Sans wallowed in the grips of his own self pity and frustration, a faint, distant song carried through the fog; getting louder and closer as the seconds passed, it's echoes ringing through the haze around Sans eerily, causing the skeleton to tense as his skull whipped around this way and that. </p><p>"Who's there?!" The sentry shouted.</p><p>The singer went silent.</p><p>Sans scrambled to his feet nervously, hissing as his aches were freshly disturbed; but just before he could really get spooked a voice called out to him.</p><p>“Oh my, that sounded like it hurt! Do you need any help?”</p><p>The skeleton took a great breath of relief, then shot an incredulous glare at the dense fog in front of him. <em>Fuckin' duh!</em> was what he wanted to say, but somewhere deep in his soul Sans found just a small scrap of patience and bit his metaphorical tongue.</p><p>“I-if you don’t mind.” he answered shakily.</p><p>The voice’s answering giggles rang unpleasantly, “Good choice, little skeleton. Tra la la~!”</p><p><em>'Tra la la'?</em> Sans repeated, wondering why that sounded so familiar-</p><p>
  <strong>Crunch, fwoosh.</strong>
</p><p>Startled, the sentry turned on his good heel to face the sounds behind him, getting a socket full of the miraculous sight of his dead weight passenger rising from the snow. Sans took a step back, at first thinking the skeleton was awake and getting up, but then quickly realized that, no, they were being <em>lifted</em> by some sort of force- like that one movie he saw where a human got possessed and started levitating up into the air. Freaky.</p><p>The floating body of Sans’ unconscious- well, definitely not a friend, but a burden was a bit mean, so…companion? Yeah, Sans' <em>companion</em> slowly started floating away; brushing against his right shoulder as the voice called out again.</p><p>“Over here, Tra la la~” </p><p>Sans was quick to follow, ignoring the aching in his body out of fear of being left alone in the fog as he slowly stumbled after. Almost just as slowly, that very same fog began to disperse around him, the air became heavy with warm moisture as the color of the ground underfoot, previously white, became blue-black and much softer; almost springy even.</p><p>With a great breath of relief, Sans realized he’d finally crossed over the border to Waterfall.</p><p>“Thank you very much,” the skeleton called out gratefully to the disembodied voice as he caught up with the floating skeleton, hands grabbing fistful of fabric in case whatever magic in use lost it's hold on them- though how he planned to catch them when he'd struggled so hard earlier was a bit beyond Sans at the moment, “I can take them back now.”</p><p>“Tra la la~ Nonsense!” Sans whipped his skull sharply to the left, towards the river that hugged the main path. A figure in a deep blue, full body cloak stood on what the sentry was only half sure was called a gondola, “Even if I hadn’t seen you take that fall a moment ago, the noise I heard certainly sounded painful. Are you okay, tra la la~?”</p><p>Hackles quickly fell as Sans let out a great, bursting sigh of relief. The biggest one so far, even.</p><p>“Riverperson! Jebus <em> crispies </em>dude, you just about gave me a soul attack!” He laughed breathily, almost dizzy with the swift change in atmosphere.</p><p>Riverperson giggled back at him, unperturbed; he was probably used to having that effect on people.</p><p>“You are always so easy to scare, little one; but you have yet to answer my question, tra la la~”</p><p>Sans smile twisted lightly, “Q-question? What que- oh right! Sorry, I’m okay; It hurts, but nothing’s broken. I’ll be good as new in a few minutes.”</p><p>The other monster hummed doubtfully at him, and Sans' smile strained at the corners as that dark hole where a face should be “stared” at him. He's known this monster for a long time, but that part of them always unsettled Sans.</p><p>“...Tra la la~ If you say so!” <em>Phew! </em>“Say, you wouldn’t happen to be heading over to Hotland would you?”</p><p>Sans grinned, “Actually, yes!” a pause as a thought occurred to him, “Why, did something happen?”</p><p>He was pretty sure he would have heard if there had, but stranger things have been known to occur down in the Underground- case in point, the skeleton he was transporting.</p><p>“Oh, no, tra la la~ I just wanted to make sure you were heading that way first.”</p><p>The skeleton’s brows furrowed, “‘Make sure’? wha- hey!” Sans stumbled forward as the body he was holding onto moved out from under his tired grip, floating calmly towards the gondola and it’s smug owner.</p><p>“Tra la la~ Come aboard and we’ll gladly take you.”</p><p>Sans didn’t need a face to see it wasn’t a request; not even a little bit. It made his soul twist uncomfortably in his chest, but nonetheless he couldn’t help a tiny part that was glad not to be walking anywhere for a good, long moment.</p><p>As he boarded the thin boat and settled onto a bench, Riverperson gently lowered his companion down next to him; propping them against his side like a limp doll. The vibrations set his teeth on edge, but Sans still wrapped an arm around the smaller’s shoulders. The waters around here were always deceptively deep.</p><p>“Tra la la~ all settled in?”</p><p>Sans gave himself a quick pat down with his free hand before nodding and shooting Riverperson a thumbs up, “All good here, ready when you are!”</p><p>“<em>Good</em>.”</p><p>The skeleton only had a second to wonder at the tone before the gondola shifted and...stood up?</p><p>“Hey, uh, RiverpersaAaaAAAAAAAAAAAAA-“</p><hr/><p>“Tra la la~ we’ve arrived!” Riverperson turned to the two skeletons rather cheerfully, hands clapping together, “I hope you've enjoyed the express trip, we were feeling a wee bit restless this time around! Tra la la~”</p><p>Sans sat shivering in his seat, sockets wide and dark as he held onto his unconscious companion for dear life. The very second he realized they were stopped, he took a small shortcut just to the edge of the riverbank with the other firmly in his arms; crashing into the dirt rather unceremoniously. </p><p>Ground! Sweet, stable ground!</p><p>“T-thanks a lot, b-but we better get g-going.” Far, far away; preferably forever. <em>Right now.</em></p><p>The cloaked monster didn’t seem perturbed in the slightest, even going so far as to help Sans gather his companion back onto his, well, back, “Tra la la~ oh yes, I understand. I hope to see your friend in better shape next time, tra la la~!”</p><p>Sans’ answering laugh was only half hysterical as he started painfully marching away, mentally replying with a fervent, “Never! Again!”</p><p>Still, “I’m sure he will be! Alphys’ll take great care of him!”</p><p>As he took off, Riverperson’s gaze dug into his skull; watching him unsubtly speed walk into the distant burnt toast of a city before looking back out into the cool river and signaling for the gondola to ride on.</p><p>“...the Destroyer, hmm? My, oh my; this world gets more interesting every day.”</p><hr/><p>“Oooh, we break the laws of attraction,” Alphys sang quietly, staring up at the large TV monitor from her comfortable seat at her desk's rolling chair; cup ramen in one hand and a fork in another, “Like you’re sent from up above, got a case of fishy love~”</p><p>“Wow, you’ve got it bad.”</p><p>The lizard monster screamed, twisting around in her chair and brandishing a noodle covered fork out threateningly.</p><p>It happened in slow motion; Sans watched with wide sockets as broth and noodle alike flew towards him with surprising accuracy, smacking with a wet splat right between his eyelights. He started closing his sockets, but not before the waxy sneak of a noodle completely fulfilled it's duty to it's one true mistress and landed a winning blow againt the intruder.</p><p>The sentry flinched back with a stumble and shut his sockets tightly, the stray noodle half caught in his left socket and hanging from it limply- and ohhh was that a very unwanted sensation.</p><p>“Oh! Gross! Alphys what the hell?!” He hissed, frantically shaking his skull back and forth. He would have just wiped it away, but his hands were already a bit preoccupied with holding a pair of thigh bones up. You know, so his companion didn’t make new friends with the floor? </p><p>That was one ship that would never sail, if Sans had his way.</p><p>“O-oh my gosh!” Alphys quickly jumped up, dropping the fork next to her lukewarm cup noodles and rushing over to assist.</p><p>
  <em>("Oh my stars! Forky! Forky!"</em>
</p><p>
  <em><strong>Cough, cough.</strong> "I...have defended our queen with honor! I am ready to go..."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Forky, noooooooooooo!")</em>
</p><p>“I am s-so, so sorry, Sans! I d-didn’t hear you come in and-“ she paused just in front of him, then put her hands on her hips, “And you didn’t knock again, d-did you?”</p><p>“Alphys!” Sans hissed, popping open the right socket to glare down at her, “I’ve got a <em> thing </em> in my socket right now and I would very much like it out. <em> Preferably now!” </em></p><p>“Oh! Y-yes, of course! H-hold still just a second-“ and then a hand blurred towards him. Sans couldn’t help it- he flinched away, taking a single step back.</p><p>Alphys froze in place, “S-Sans?” </p><p>The skeleton slapped on a smile through his discomfort, “S-sorry, thought you were going to hit me for a moment. You can try again now.”</p><p>The smaller’s brows furrowed behind her glasses, but otherwise made no comment; instead she more gingerly reached out towards him.</p><p>“Y-you’re going to have to open your eye if you want me to get it out in one piece.” She said.</p><p>“Well that’s too bad, seeing as I don’t have any.” Sans remarked, but he still did as instructed; forcing himself to open his left socket, “Nothing but air up here, you know.”</p><p>“Sans.” Alphys admonished through a smile, pulling the noodle out and throwing it somewhere behind her.</p><p>“What? You’re smiling!” </p><p>She huffed, “You know h-how I feel about those kinds of jokes.”</p><p>“And yet you make them all the time.”</p><p>
  <em> “Sans.” </em>
</p><p>Sans grimaced, “Okay, okay. Fine. Now, uh, could you help me get this guy onto a couch or something?”</p><p>At first Alphys just gave him a blank look, but then it seemed to click when he pointedly lifted one of his companion’s legs higher up and shook it in an awkward motion.</p><p>“...O-OH MY STARS!!” She gasped, hands flying up to cover her mouth, “What happened?! Who- wait, no!” She spun on her heel, tail accidentally knocking into Sans’ shin (much to his continued pain) as she rushed away and stopped at a large metal door Sans knew had to be the lab elevator, pressing a button against the wall, “Walk and talk, walk and talk!”</p><p>Sans hesitated only for a second before following, reaching the elevator himself just in time for it to open wide with a cheerful ding and for Alphys to fretfully skitter in; to which he was, again, hesitant to follow her lead.</p><p>“O-okay, first, who is that?”</p><p>Sans settled himself against the back wall as she pressed another button on the inside panel, grateful that the small room had a support bar going across it that jutted out far enough to ‘sit’ his companion on; he groaned in relief.</p><p>“Wish I could tell you, but they just sort of rolled in from out of nowhere.” He pointedly stared at the ceiling, trying not to think about how fast they were going down, “Took a nasty tumble into a tree hard enough to make me scared the <em> tree </em>was gonna fall over.”</p><p>“Is- is that why their arm is missing?” She asked, hands twisting together nervously.</p><p>“Oh, uh, actually that’s my fault. Don’t worry though, I’ve got their arm in my inventory!”</p><p>“Arm in your-...” Alphys took on a slightly sickly shade of yellow-green before shaking her head, “N-next question! What, uh, do you know about them?”</p><p>Sans moved his gaze onto the twitching leg in his right hand, “Um, well, they twitch alot; vibrate too…” He missed Alphys’ curious glance, “Obviously they’re a skeleton...Oh! I don’t know if you can smell it, but they sort of smell like hot plastic?”</p><p>The smaller monster took a delicate sniff in Sans direction and grimaced, “I-I smell it alright.”</p><p>The skeleton giggled, “Ruuude~”</p><p>She hid her face behind a hand and looked away. Her next words were a bit muffled, but he had no problem understanding them in the slightest.</p><p>“y-you forgot that their bones are black.”</p><p>Sans blinked, “Are they?” He looked back down at the leg, “Oh. Huh! Wonder how I didn’t notice that..?”</p><p>Alphys gave him an incredulous look, “Did you really not notice-?“</p><p>She was interrupted by the ding of the elevator as they came to a rather abrupt stop on the- Sans quickly glanced up at the elevator panel but did a quick double take when he realized that there weren’t any numbers, just three buttons simply labeled “Core,” “Labby,” and “Lab.”</p><p>(He squinted suspiciously at the middle button, wondering if he was reading that right. It almost looked like-)</p><p>Alphys quickly shuffled out, calling out a soft “C-come on,” over her shoulder. Sans groaned under his breath but didn’t argue, shifting his companion back up into a better hold and taking <strike>fearful</strike> hurried steps to follow.</p><p><em> It’s dark down here, </em> he noted, eyeing the grey-green shadows that only got darker the further up the wall his gaze went. Alphys hardly seemed to notice though, taking a left turn into the only hallway available. </p><p>Sans...hesitated. On his back his companion shivered and absently he patted their exposed thigh bone with a thumb; the best he could do at the moment.</p><p>“Yeah buddy, I know how you feel.” He murmured, glancing every which way. There wasn’t much to see, only large dark tiles and walls; but it made him feel less...watched.</p><p>
  <b>CLANG.</b>
</p><p>“Ah!” Sans jumped and twisted around, staring wide-socketed at the elevator door behind him.</p><p><em> It...must have just closed. </em> He told himself. <em> I’ll have to tell Alphys to take a look at it’s hinges or something later. </em></p><p>“S-Sans, hurry!” Said lizard called from the end of the hall (atleast he thought she did; all he could see down there was a deep, dark abyss of <em> doom</em>. Great).</p><p>“Hold your horses, I’m coming!” Sans called back, wincing as his voice quivered just slightly on the first word; not quite a stutter, not quite a slur, just a warble of sound where it shouldn’t be.</p><p>Despite it being the appropriate place for it, the skeleton’s footsteps didn’t leave so much as a whump on the tile. It could have easily been because he was wearing slippers today (Sans wasn’t expecting to be anywhere but at his station) but that didn’t seem quite right. </p><p>“Man, Alphys, this place sure is creepy.” He called out, gaze flicking left and right. He almost jumped out of his skin (heh) when a previous unnoticed monitor on his left lit up with glowing green text. He caught the words, “Entry number- time to do- king-“ before forcing his skull pointedly forward.</p><p>Now was not the time to be nosy, Sans can always look later if Alphys is okay with it. Luckily that same wall of text was just bright enough to reveal a bit more of the area around him, and he could almost see the glint of light reflecting off glasses at the end of the hall.</p><p>Sans sighed in relief and marched with renewed energy towards his friend, passing another panel that all lit up in his presence just like the first. He never once looked up at it, instead choosing to watch his steps; it really wouldn’t do to accidentally trip down here, especially with a passenger on board. </p><p>Without realizing, he fell into a pattern:</p><p>One, two, three, four, five- Panel. Look up. </p><p>One, two, three, four, five- Panel. Look up. </p><p>One, two, three, four, five- Panel. Look up- Wall?</p><p>Sans blinked several times in succession, snapping out of whatever daze he fell into. </p><p>“A-...Alphys?” He called, looking down the much thinner hallway. She must have gone on without him…</p><p>A flash of annoyance, born purely from fear, made his teeth clench together. <em> Damn that woman! </em> He thought, walking with no small amount of attitude through the narrow path. It was a mean thought, and he quickly corrected himself.</p><p><em> She’s just worried, </em> Sans reminded himself, <em> you know she gets more flighty under pressure. </em></p><p>
  <em> Shouldn’t she be used to that though, as the Royal Scientist? </em>
</p><p><em> Shut up. </em> He scolded, <em> We’ve got no right to judge her, especially not when she’s helping us! </em></p><p>The walls suddenly fell away with little fanfare, and he quickly found himself in a larger room with two available (very spooky looking) paths <em> and no Alphys in sight. </em></p><p>“Oh no.”</p><p>Sans wracked his brain for a solution (oh, heh, right; skeleton) and a stray thought came to him. Just a blurb of text he must have read once that said “In a Maze, your safest bet is always to hug the right!”</p><p>...or was it the left?</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“Right it is!” He declared, hefting his fellow skeleton back into proper position (they just kept slipping down!) and taking the, well, right hallway. Absently he noticed a pair of solid looking metal doors up ahead, but as they were wide open he barely gave them a thought.</p><p>Eternity seemed to stretch on relentlessly through these halls; no panels to light the way, and no sounds to even indicate he was even moving at all. If Sans was the paranoid type, he’d almost think that his eyes were tricking him and that Alphys must have stuck him in some sort of endless loop. Luckily he was not and the hallway twisted to the right before that thought could really set in.</p><p>A light glowed up ahead.</p><p>“Oh, thank the stars!” Sans whispered fervently under his breath, picking up the pace into a near jog. </p><p>The new room was much larger than the previous, containing nine uniform beds in almost just as uniformed rows of three. Next to the closest one (and between the first and second in the bottom row) stood a fretting Alphys holding an electrical lamp in both hands.</p><p>“T-there you are!” She cried, “I f-found this lamp in one of the back rooms, so now we can see what’s wrong!”</p><p>Sans walked over, glancing around, “Sorry, but you sort of left me back there and, well, I’m just glad I didn’t get lost. I would have been really upset if I had.”</p><p>“L-left you-“ Her brows furrowed, “But weren’t you, um, right behind me?”</p><p>“Noooo..?” Sans tilted his head, genuinely confused, “You left me in that first hallway.”</p><p>“T-the first?! Then h-how-?!” She cut herself off, turning to a hallway on the far side of the room before turning back to him with wide eyes.</p><p>The two stared at each other, completely unnerved.</p><p>“...riiiiight. Okay, you know what?” Sans glanced down at the bed in between the two, checking for any objects before turning and practically dropping the other skeleton onto it and quickly twisting back around to fix them into a more comfortable position, “Help me fix this dude real quick and then you and I can go back up into the lobby and <em> never come back down here again.” </em></p><p>“F-fair enough.”</p><p>The next half an hour was full of jittery questions, science, and hyperactive senses. Every noise around them earned alarmed stares into the shadows and at one point Sans could have sworn he saw...something, peering into the room from a doorway he’d only just noticed out of the corner of his eye. Strangely enough, his lizard friend only seemed half as freaked out as him, so he “asked“ about it.</p><p>“I don’t know how you do this everyday.”</p><p>“Hmm?” She looked up from a clipboard she’d been writing on, “O-oh! The lab. You get used to it after a little bit.” She leaned back down and placed a hand on the downed skeleton’s forehead, and then with a nod picked up her pen again and wrote something else down, “It usually helps that I’m in the zone when I come down here and I know that I’m, well, alone.”</p><p>Sans grimaced, <em> Creepy. </em></p><p>“A-actually, that reminds me,” she continued, “How is Papyrus?”</p><p>The taller perked up, “Oh! He’s great as always, though he has been having some trouble with-“ Sans sockets suddenly widened in dawning horror as a thought occurred to him, “Alphys, what time is it?”</p><p>Alphys (sensing his urgency) quickly opened her inventory and pulled out her phone, “It’s…12:34, why?”</p><p>“Oh my stars-“ Sans turned on his heel and rushed back the way he came, “I FORGOT PAPYRUS!”</p><p>“W-wait! Sans you can-!” But he was already turning down the second hall, “-teleport…”</p><p>The lizard monster sighed and looked down at her newest patient, “L-looks like it’s just y-you and me now.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Sans: oh stars oh stars oh stars! PAPYRUS! BABY I’M ONMYWAYDONTWORRY!<br/>Faun: why do I hear boss music...?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Parental Guidance</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Snowdin’s great pine trees were a thing of beauty as well as a defier of its own nature. </p><p>In a place without sunlight, it should have been almost impossible for the evergreens to grow as healthy and abundantly as they had; but somehow, some way, they had adapted to the harsh conditions. It couldn’t have been easy; an organism which required light and heat to grow and feed must have surely suffered as it desperately tried to live in a place almost completely absent of both essential resources, but the evidence of their efforts was plain for all to see. An entire generation of plants that would never know the struggles and strifes of its predecessors.</p><p><em> If only he were a tree</em>, Papyrus thought, staring into the tree line that bordered the entire town as he waited for his <em>very late</em> brother. Everyone else had already gone home, either picked up by their guardians or walked home themselves...well, almost everyone.</p><p>A soft, unfamiliar pair of giggles to his left had the little bones reluctantly glancing to the side, off to where his teacher, Ms. Faun, stood tightly bundled in warm winter wear (shaded in classic Gryftmas colors) next to a tall bunny monster sharply dressed in a suit that couldn’t have been anywhere near comfortable to wear in the cold of Snowdin. The bunny was the father of Marlo Waters- a sullen, mean kid only a year or so older than Papyrus who stood uncharacteristically quiet at his father’s side.</p><p>Marlo was the class bully; known for his jeers, cruel jokes, and just as awful pranks. He once put tacks in everyone’s shoes, even his own, and told everyone it must have been Papyrus because, <em>“He’s a skeleton! No one can trust a skeleton!”</em></p><p>Not even Ms. Faun was spared from his reign of terror, but she rarely did anything about it. She rarely did anything that would come close to being <em>helpful</em>.</p><p>Suddenly, Marlo's dad bent down and nuzzled Ms. Faun on the cheek. Papyrus gasped, mitten covered hands flying to his face as he turned away in embarrassment; he hadn’t meant to see <em> that! </em> </p><p>(Deep down, something about this scene felt wrong. Why was Marlo so quiet?)</p><p>“I’ll be off then,” Papyrus heard the tall bunny say, “See you tomorrow?”</p><p>“Of course! Never miss a day.” Ms. Faun replied, more peppy than he’d ever heard from his deer teacher. </p><p>A soft chuckle followed by the almost unnoticed rustle of fabric and the oh, so familiar crunch of snow as two pairs of feet walked steadily towards him had Papyrus dropping his hands quickly, not wanting to look silly when the two passed him; but almost immediately his eye sockets locked onto the glaring eyes of his least favorite classmate, half hidden behind his father’s legs as the larger bunny pulled him along by the hand. </p><p><em>Say something, I dare you,</em> the glare said. </p><p>Normally the little bones would look away, but for some reason he couldn’t help but hold the look this time, brows furrowing as some strange feeling welled up in his nonexistent throat, choking him silent. Marlo’s glare faltered for a second before coming back twice as strong as he turned firmly back forward; long ears standing tall on top of his head.</p><p>Papyrus had no love for the other kid but...had Mr. Waters even said hello to him yet?</p><p>The little bones watched his bully’s back until both bunnies turned around a corner and disappeared completely out of sight, then sighed and conflictedly turned his stare back towards the tree line.</p><p>Trees never had to worry about how wrong some things could be.</p><p>“Oh! Mr. Papyrus, you’re still here!” </p><p>Papyrus quickly fixed his scarf over the top of his nasal cavity, trying to hide the almost instant scowl on his face as Ms. Faun meandered her way up beside him. She slowed down as the space between them shrunk down to a handful of inches and smiled down her snout at him.</p><p>“I don’t suppose you saw all of that, did you?” There was a hint of...something just under her words, a sort of tone he was more familiar with hearing from his own brother these days; this time though, the tone was directed at <em> him,</em> and he didn’t like it.</p><p>“...saw what?” he asked, voice muffled by the bright red fabric.</p><p>Ms. Faun smiled, like something was funny, “Good answer. Now, where is that fa- brother of yours? He’s not usually this late.”</p><p><em> Like you actually care, </em> Papyrus wanted to say, but what actually came out of his mouth was, “I don’t know.”</p><p>She sighed and shook her head, “Some people are so irresponsible these days; and that temper of his!” the little bones tensed as she crouched down and put a hand on his shoulder. It felt more like teeth than fingers, “He doesn’t do that to you, does he? And where are your actual parents?”</p><p>“Wh-” Offended, he twisted out from under her hand and backed away, “No! Why does that even-!”</p><p>A pair of gentle hands grabbed Papyrus’ shoulders from behind just as his back bumped into a pair of legs. The little bones gasped, thinking a stranger had just grabbed him, until he heard the familiar drawling accent his brother was so known for overhead.</p><p>“H-heeey, if it isn’t my favorite babybones! Sorry I’m late bro, work held me up.”</p><p>Ms. Faun scrambled to her hooves and Papyrus’ shoulders slump in relief. He threw his head back to see his brother’s face, grinning widely as their sockets met; he couldn’t help it, he was just too relieved!</p><p>“Sans!” the little bones twisted in the elder skeleton’s hold to wrap his arms tightly around his brother’s waist and bury his face in the soft fabric of the yellow sweater, “It’s okay! You’re here now!”</p><p>Unseen, Sans smiled down at him, rubbing the upper half of his little brother's back before shooting the nervous teacher a withering stare as she started opening her mouth. Faun took a step back, seemingly reconsidering something before giving a barely noticeable nod and making a quick escape back to the Librarby door. </p><p>The moment the windowed door closed behind her, Sans knelt down to get a better look at his little brother’s face; feeling every sore and aching bone groan as the snow re-soaked his pant legs; but Papyrus’ wide grin, so happy to see him- just like every day before this one with a flash of teeth peaking over the top of his scarf- set off a wave of calm from deep within Sans’ soul. Suddenly the trials of the day and the bruises he no doubt had growing on his body all became inconsequential; just dust in the wind as the elder’s own face morphed into a tired and worried grin. He raised both hands up, one to rest on Papyrus’ shoulder and another to cradle his face as a thumb gently caressed the little one’s cheek through his scarf.</p><p>“You’re hiding your face again,” Sans murmured, eyelights scanning the other’s expression carefully. </p><p>Papyrus’ smile fell then came back with almost blinding intensity, “Nyehehe! Don’t worry, my face just got cold.”</p><p><em> And now I’m even more worried, </em>the elder thought with a quiet sigh. Then, with a slightly pained grunt, he forced himself back to his feet. The sound caught Papyrus’ attention and he tilted his head up at Sans.</p><p>“Brother, are <em> you </em>okay?” He wondered, no doubt taking in the barely noticeable sheen of sweat and dirt scuffs on Sans’ skull and the way his hands shook- not to mention the way he shifted all his weight onto one leg.</p><p>“Huh? Oh, yeah; actually-” Sans’ lights glinted, “Boy, have I got a story for you!”</p><p>“Yeah?!” Papyrus asked excitedly, his own empty sockets beginning to sparkle.</p><p>“Heck yeah, bro! Wanna go to Grillby’s for takeout and hang out by the pond?”</p><p>Papyrus’ loud cheer of “Yes!” echoed off the trees.</p><hr/><p>“-and then Alphys said, ‘But weren’t you right behind me?’” Sans tried to pitch his voice higher like Alphys’ before switching back, “And then I said, ‘No, you left me at the front!’”</p><p>Papyrus gasped, sockets wide as his hands clenched tightly onto his poor, abused burger. Both skeletons were sitting criss-crossed across from each other on the pond shore, hot food and milkshakes piled high between the two on a picnic cloth that had a strangely angular bright yellow stain in the middle of it; like someone had spilt paint on it while it was folded.</p><p>“And then what happened?!” the little bones asked, leaning forward eagerly. Sans smirked, pausing just long enough to shove a fry into his smug mouth and exaggeratedly chewing it for added dramatic timing until Papyrus gave him an unimpressed pout for his trouble.</p><p>Sans snorted and continued, “And then I realized I was late and teleported like void to get over here.”</p><p>“Oh.” Papyrus blinked, then frowned, “Boooo, lame ending.”</p><p>Sans raised a brow, “Not all stories have climactic endings, you know.”</p><p>“‘Climactic’?”</p><p>“Means thrilling- or something like that.”</p><p>“Ohhh.” Then Papyrus took out a huge chunk out of his burger, chewing loudly. Sans laughed, taking a bite of his own much more quietly while facing out towards the pond. It wasn’t really, strictly by definition, a pond; not unless you considered a giant frozen rectangle of water smacked down on top of a flowing, impossibly unfrozen but beyond freezing <em> river </em>in the middle of an even larger (possibly endless?) forest, a pond. It was one of their favorite places to be, the one spot in the entire underground no one ever bothered to go to because of how difficult it was to even get here...unless you could teleport.</p><p>Yes, Sans cheated. Did you really expect him not to take advantage of his awesome space bending powers? Heck no, space bending powers for the win.</p><p>A few minutes into their companionable silence, Sans started to notice Papyrus glancing at him periodically while fidgeting with the almost completely eaten burger in his hand.</p><p>“What’s up?” The elder asked.</p><p>Papyrus straightened up, “Huh? Oh, uh, I just wanted to ask-“</p><p>Both skeletons paused as a muffled- and very catchy if he did say so himself- song started playing from somewhere nearby...oh! </p><p>Panicking, Sans shoved the burger as far into his mouth as he could and held it between his teeth; wiping his hands on his pants (“Ewwww! Sans, use a napkin!”) and shoved a not completely greasy hand into a side pocket, pulling out an old sideways keyboard phone. He flipped it open, pressed the little green phone icon, and pressed it to his skull without actually looking at the caller ID; free hand going back to the burger sticking out of his mouth as he bit into and swallowed the delicious chunk whole-</p><p>“WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN, SANS?!”</p><p>-just in time to choke on it as a loud voice yelled through the phone’s speaker.</p><p>Sans tried coughing a couple of times before quickly giving up on it, throwing his phone towards his startled brother as he dived for his milkshake; taking huge, desperate gulps of that sweet, sweet iced milk. Meanwhile, Papyrus hesitantly took over the phone call.</p><p>“Hello? Who is this?” a pause and then a bright smile, “Oh, Captain Undyne! How are you?” </p><p>An even longer pause, followed by a glance Sans way, “Brother? He’s-” Sans made frantic “No” gestures around his cup while shaking his head side to side; and in return Papyrus gave him a disapproving stare, “-right here. He just needed a minute since we were eating dinner.” </p><p><em> Damn it, bro! </em> Sans shot the little bones a halfhearted glare as Papyrus listened closely to whatever new, useless thing Undyne had to say now. <em> Stupid fish always getting in the way- </em></p><p>“No, it’s okay; brother was almost done eating anyway.” <em> Wha- no he wasn’t! </em> Sans was nowhere near done; and he emphasized this by pointing his hands toward the half eaten burg and the small mountian of fries while mouthing “Boi!” at the younger skeleton.</p><p>“Yeah, I’ll give it to him now.” <em> What?  </em>Papyrus started handing the phone over. <em> No, no, no, no, no; Papyrus, why have you betrayed me-! </em></p><p>“Hello, Sans here.”</p><p>“SANS! Sorry about calling you during dinner, BUT WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!”</p><p>...<em>ow. </em></p><p>“You’re going to have to elaborate a bit, Captain.” </p><p>“Doggo called me earlier and told me you weren’t there for the shift change. Everyone’s been worried sick trying to figure out where you went and then one of us finally had the sense to check Grillby’s; and it turns out you’re completely fine?!”</p><p>Sans winced; shit, he knew he forgot something.</p><p>“Sorry Captain, I ran into some trouble during shift and had to rush out to Alphys’.”</p><p>“Trouble?” Undyne became much more quiet, “What sort of trouble; a human?”</p><p>Sans shook his head, “No, injured monster.”</p><p>“Yeah? Who was it, how did you-” she was interrupted by the same catchy tune from earlier playing right against Sans’ skull.</p><p>“Ack! Hold on, someone’s calling me.” He told the fish monster as he pulled the phone back and glanced at the caller ID.</p><p>Crap, that can’t be good. Quickly he brought the phone back up and said a speedy, “Sorry, it’s Alphys; I’ll call you back,” and then hung up on his boss before she could respond.</p><p>(Somewhere in Waterfall, Undyne pulled her phone away from her ear fin and stared down at the screen in disbelief.)</p><p>Pressing the answer button again, Sans pulled up his phone to his skull. Again.</p><p>“Hey, Alphys! How’s our newest friend?”</p><p>Instead of an actual answer, all he could hear was the sound of metal crashing, things falling, and a frantically distorted shout of what he thought might have been, <b>“W-w-where the fu-u-uck is my arm?!”</b> and then a muffled cry of, “N-no, wait! P-please don’t knock that-“ <em> Crash, </em>“O-over.”</p><p>Sans shared a wide socketed look with his brother, “...Alphys?” </p><p>“S-Sans!” came the much clearer response, “Sans, I- I need your help!”</p><p>“What’s going on?”</p><p>“It’s t-the skeleton you brought in earlier; they woke up a few minutes ago a-and now they’re freaking out!”</p><p>Damn it, there goes his last chance at a peaceful dinner.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Sans: what a lovely day<br/>Alphys: EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE<br/>Sans: come on Alphys, you gotta look on the bright side :)<br/>Alphys: <em>I SWEAR IF THATS A PUN</em></p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Fax Machine Screams</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I’m not late, your late!</p><p>Edit note: color text is &lt; p &gt; &lt; span class = "kankri" &gt;<br/>(words in quotation marks interchangable)</p><p>Edit edit: sorry past me, can't get it to work :(</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Awareness came to him in a slow trickle of sensations. A dull throb here, pins and needles there, the murmur of voices all around him, and the oddest sensation, like he was surrounded by warmth even though the anti-void was always cold without fail; but Error was tired, and his aches and pains demanded rest, so the glitch allowed himself to drift back off into sleep; and for once, he almost felt...safe.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>When next he awoke, Error knew he had moved. He could feel how gravity had shifted onto his ribs instead of its familiar position on his back.</p><p><em> Must have fallen off the beanbag</em> <em>again.</em> He thought blearily,<em> I should probably get up...Pfft, naaah! Way too much work...</em></p><p>Groaning, he shifted around a bit into a more comfortable position; gathering the heavy blanket that wasn't on his back into a little ball and- wait, since when did he have-</p><p>
  <strong>Scribble, scribble, scritch-tap-scritch.</strong>
</p><p>The skeleton’s sockets snapped wide open, body frozen. In front of him there was a sharp sound; a quick inhale followed by a soft clatter much closer to his face that had him flinching back subtly. Something light being put down?  </p><p>“O-oh my! You're a-awake?” A nasally voice asked gently, “C-can you, um- can you hear me? See me?”</p><p><em>How the-</em> Error shoved himself up into a sitting position, body tense,<em> How the hell did some Star’s forsaken anomaly get into my </em><em>anti-void?! </em></p><p>He reached up to his face with both hands, fingers flying for the edges of his socke- why couldn't he feel his other hand?</p><p>“O-oh. Um! Listen; don’t panic, okay?" The voice advised him as he frantically started patting around his shoulder and side (Where was it? <em>Where was it?</em>), "I- I know this seems bad, but, um- Oh boy, what am I even saying? M-maybe I should just call Sans…?”</p><p>His arm wasn’t there. </p><p>
  <em> His arm wasn’t there.  </em>
</p><p>
  <b> <em>His arm wasn’t there. </em> </b>
</p><p>
  <b> <em>H i s a r m w a s n’ t t h e r e.</em> </b>
</p><p>(“He-, Alph-s! How’s —r newest fr—nd?” A new voice asked, broken up by faint signal interference; Error hardly noticed.)</p><p>Horrified, he threw himself over the side of the bed, but instead of the solid floor his feet kicked something thin and metallic; and then that must have hit something else, or had a bunch of smaller things on it, because there was a series of clatters, a couple of plinks, and the flutter of what he knew had to be papers- but Error didn’t care.</p><p><b>“W-w-where the fu-u-uck is my arm?!” </b>He cried, clutching at the empty sleeve hanging at his side (not noticing his shout had startled the other monster bad enough to drop their phone onto the ground). It was strange- it didn’t hurt, or even feel like it was gone at all, just this tingling feeling of pins and needles, like it had fallen asleep; but it was very obviously missing in action, and it brought Error’s breath up short. He tried to stand again and succeeded, bare feet clicking against the floor as he stumbled blindly away from where the voice had come from-</p><p>“N-no, wait! P-please don’t knock that-!“</p><p>-and then promptly tripped over another thin metal thing with a crash. He realized it was a side table of some sort when the flat edge of the table top jammed under his ribs and directly onto the tender vertebrae of his spine, knocking the wind out of him.</p><p>“-O-over.” The voice finished; then, much quieter, “Oh d-dear.”</p><p>“Alph-s?” </p><p>The owner of the voice gasped and, as Error twisted off the cursed bit of metallic hell, he heard the distinct sound of fabric rustling as the apparent Alphys of whatever AU he was in did <em> something </em>, and then they were speaking back to the distorted voice in a hushed but urgent manner.</p><p>“S-Sans! Sans, I- I need your help!”</p><p><em> Sans? </em> Dread shot up the glitch’s newly bruised spine, sucking down a sharp breath. Shit, he needed to go now; he was way too damaged at the moment to take on a powerhouse, let alone in their own universe!</p><p>“What’s go—g on?”</p><p>Error raised his good (only) hand into the air and swiped down- but nothing happened. No ripping sound that usually accompanied the tearing of the walls of a universe, no smell of ozone- hell! Not even a gush of magic into his palm!</p><p><em> Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. </em> The glitching skeleton felt himself beginning to sweat. Hoping it was just a fluke, he tried again; but all he got was a soft breeze of displaced air.</p><p><em> Nononono! </em> He turned his hand onto himself, raising it up to the bottom rim of his socket where he knew his tear marks began and dug just slightly into the bone, just enough to irritate his sockets into producing his unique brand of magic and pulling out- nothing, apparently.</p><p>He missed whatever it was the Alphys ended up replying with, too distracted with the soul crushing realization that something was very, very wrong with him. Desperately he tried again, digging in harder; and then when that failed he did it again, and again, <em> and again- </em></p><p>“A-a-ah!” Error hissed, snatching his hand back and squeezing his stinging socket tightly closed, having scratched himself in his panic. Frustration welled up inside him, choking him. </p><p><em> I’m stuck. Well and truly stuck</em>, <em> No way out, no magic to defend myself with- </em> fear scrawled up his neck vertebrae <em> -stuck in a room with another monster that I can’t even see and an even bigger threat on it’s way right now. </em></p><p>Error’s breathing began to speed up, the tear marks on his cheekbones burning. He just knew they had to be glowing, as if his pitiful state wasn’t already humiliating enough. </p><p>“U-um, please don’t cry,” the Alphys tried to sooth. He heard her stepping closer, stopping a foot away from himself, “I’m s-sure we can fix you up good a-as new!”</p><p>Something touched his shoulder and Error <em>flipped out. </em></p><hr/><p>The moment the elevator doors opened, Sans tore out of the little mobile room in a dead sprint; a cocktail of emotions twisting icy-hot around his soul. Fear, anger, worry, exhaustion; they all had their share under his ribcage, along with the creeping numbness of magic depletion. </p><p>(Left.)</p><p>He’d really done it this time, teleporting all over the place like he’d been. He knew he’d pushed himself too hard, and it <em> would </em> catch up with him if he wasn’t careful, but he couldn’t afford to stop; not when Alphys had sounded so scared. </p><p>(Right.)</p><p>Luckily, it seemed fate was on his side today. Somehow, the air down here had become dense, packed with magic that the skeleton knew hadn’t been here before. It was the only reason Sans hadn’t passed out mid sprint, though the tang of it burned like exposed battery acid; and unfortunately it couldn’t push back the heavy cloud of fatigue over his mind. </p><p>(Left again.)</p><p>It made thinking and reacting so much slower, so he didn’t register the hallway switching sharply to the right again until he crashed into one of it’s walls with a rather impressive <b>thud</b>. </p><p>Sans staggered back, stunned. That...had definitely smarted; ten out of ten would not wall again. He shook the stars from his skull as he carefully turned to the right- or, well, he thought it was the right, but it could have been the left for all he knew (he had just taken a rather nasty hit); however, he was slightly reassured he was going the, heh, right way when the distant sound of screaming finally drifted down to meet him.</p><p>As if the creepy, dark hallways weren’t spooky enough.</p><p>Sans tried to push himself back into a sprint, or even just a jog, but his jelly legs just weren’t having it anymore. He’d been lucky to make it this far as it is.</p><p><em> Fuck. Well, I hope no one’s dying, </em> He thought gravely<em>.  </em></p><p>
  <em> Oh yes, take your time; I doubt anything potentially disastrous will happen while you dilly dally your way over. </em>
</p><p><em> …Damn it. </em>Sans cursed, mentally tacking on anxiousness to the growing list of stressful feelings as he threw himself forward into a clunky sprint. The screaming became more and more audible as he progressed, and Sans started to pick out words - or, well, something similar enough; like a mix of vowels and beeps being shouted through a bad phone line.</p><p>And then he was in; entering a room full of violent screaming. It should <em> not </em> have felt like crossing a finish line, but <em> damn </em>if Sans didn’t almost collapse on the spot in relief.</p><p>
  <em> Focus! You’re not done yet. </em>
</p><p>“Al-Alphys! ‘M here!” He wheezed out, letting himself stumble back against the wall; just in time too, as something whizzed past his skull at high speeds and shattered into splinters upon impact with the wall far to his right.</p><p>
  <em> H-holy shit! </em>
</p><p>“O-over here!” The lizard called back, barely audible over the outraged cries of their guest. It took Sans a long second to spot her (probably because she had to duck around a significantly larger object- wait was that a TV tray??), but when he did he almost laughed incredulously- at this angle, hiding behind a bed on it’s side, all he could see was a reptilian snout poking up with a little hand frantically waving beside it.</p><p>Sans glanced over to the source of the violent happenings- his very awake and upset companion- then back towards Alphys’ hiding spot. </p><p>First impressions said that, If Sans made a sound, he was very likely to have something thrown at him; but how likely was it that he’d have something thrown at him if he was quiet…?</p><p>Sans took a single step forward-</p><p>...<em>FF</em><b><em>FFWACK!</em> </b></p><p>-and just barely dodge his death by homicidal clipboard. Which busted into shards of...cork board? Whatever clipboards are made of.</p><p>The sentry felt himself sweating, back braced firmly against the wall. <em> Hahaha, I’m in danger. </em> </p><p>
  <b>“1 C-C-CAN HEAR Y0U, F0CKERS! C0ME 0N, SAY S0METH1NG AGA1N, M0VE, 1 DARE Y0U!”</b>
</p><p><em> Wow, kinda makes me regret ever pulling them out of the snow.</em> Sans thought,<em> Still- can’t move, can’t call for help, and staying still means that eventually they’ll hit me and that’s kinda definitely not on the list of ways I want to die… </em></p><p>“Sans!” Sans snapped his incredulous gaze over to Alphys as she poked her head over the foot of the bed- which was also technically the side?? “I-I’ll distract- eek! Them while you- Oh my stars! RUN!”</p><p>She finished it with a wink and a thumbs up at him, and Sans had to wonder just what kind of experimental fumes she’d inhaled within the last hour or so that gave her that sort of confidence. He shook his head side to side frantically, mouthing “No!” like her life depended on it- which it sorta did- but she just sent back an even slower wink and punched forward her thumbs up a bit in emphasis.</p><p><b>“AS 1F 1’D-D-D 1ET Y0U ESCAPE!”</b> His (former?) companion screeched. Aaaand that’s an entire bed flying toWARDS HIM OHSHIT-</p><p>It was by pure luck that Sans didn’t die in that very moment, because in the instant it took to realize death was coming for him, he froze- completely locked up from the shoulder-down; fortunately that seemed to be the last straw for his knees, and the bed sailed right over his skull as he collapsed onto the floor.</p><p>Sans gave a shaky smile up at the metal ceiling, sockets wide and blank as tears of unadulterated, incredulous fear sprang up in the corners. From this angle he couldn’t see the wreckage of the weaponized bed, and perhaps that was better for his sanity.</p><p>“SANS!” Alphys cried out. Their guest paused for a moment with what looked like surprise.</p><p><b>“W-w-wait, did that actua11y work?”</b> A wide, yellowed grin as they posed in victory, fists tight in the air, <b>“HE11 YES! N0w t0 k111 0f that 0ther f-f-freak!”</b></p><p><em> ...Wait, does...do they really think I’m dead? </em>Sans smile twisted, <em>So that’s how it is. </em></p><p>Through the cacaphony of noise the darker skeleton was making, the sentry slowly sat up as quietly as he could, not really having a plan in mind but knowing that he would have his <b>revenge</b>. It just so happened that his dirty slipper caught his light and an impulsive, terrible idea came to mind. It wasn’t, strictly speaking, an idea though- more of an urge that, fueled with the rage of betrayal, quickly spiraled out of control- but for Sans purposes, it would do.</p><p>He slipped the slipper off (heh, <em>slipper</em>ed off) and shakily got back onto his feet while the other skeleton renewed their passion of ‘let’s kill the lizard’ by pelting her mattress barricade with miscellaneous items- none of which Sans bothered identifying, too busy narrowing down his focus onto his target and calculating the odds of him making the throw.</p><p>The twitching, maniacally laughing skeleton wasn’t far, maybe thirteen feet at the most; but Sans' slipper was light. He’d be lucky if it went five before it inevitably lost momentum...unless he snuck up behind them; then he could get an infinite number of hits in.</p><p><em> Do I have enough energy left for a teleport, though...? </em> He wondered, turning his focus inward for a moment as he searched for even the smallest of sparks…</p><p>...he did! Not enough for a full teleport, but a jump wasn’t nearly as energy consuming nor completely out of the question! He would get to have his revenge cake, <b> <em>and eat it!</em> </b></p><hr/><p>Error was really starting to get into this, enjoying the terrified squeaks and screams of his victim and the cathartic crashes and bangs of destruction he had so grown to love, when the air started to change.</p><p>It was subtle at first- the faint sense of pressure change in his auditory orifice, a smell like something just got freshly laundered- and then, like turning the volume on blast too quickly, the glitch was quickly overwhelmed by an almost incomprehensible mess of ‘too much, too soon.’</p><p>
  <b>SMACK.</b>
</p><p>
  <b>-1</b>
</p><p>Error blinked (uselessly), bringing up a hand to touch the back of his skull where something light and soft had actually managed to take a point off his HP.</p><p>
  <b>-1</b>
</p><p>
  <b>“Ow! W-w-what the hell-“</b>
</p><p>
  <b>-1</b>
</p><p>
  <b>-1</b>
</p><p>
  <b>-1</b>
</p><p><b>“S-S-ST0P 1T!!”</b> Error demanded, hunkering down into a crouch as he tried to shield his poor (cracked) skull with his hand. </p><p>It paused for a moment, and a stern voice asked, “Will you stop trying to kill us if I do?”</p><p>Error shot a sightless glare over his shoulder, <b>“NEVER-R-R!”</b></p><p>
  <b> <em>SMACK.</em> </b>
</p><p>
  <b>“0W!”</b>
</p><p>As you can see, this only earned him a more emphatic slap.</p><p>
  <b> -1 </b>
</p><p>
  <b> -1 </b>
</p><p>
  <b> -1 </b>
</p><p>
  <b> -1 </b>
</p><p>
  <b> -1 </b>
</p><p>In an effort to escape this strange hell, the glitch ducked his chin down onto his sternum and did a quick roll forward, then sprang up onto his feet and tried to make a break for it- not the best idea, but then he was sorta out of other options besides blindly running for his life.</p><p>“Oh no you don’t!” </p><p>Error screeched, his attacker tackling into his back and wrapping a pair of arms tightly around his ribs- pinning his only arm to his side as he fell flat on his face. </p><p>There was a moment of stunned silence, mostly on the dark skeleton’s side. Everything inside him screamed “Get it off, get it off, get it off,” but another, quieter part took immediate notice that <em> it didn’t hurt. </em></p><p>Then the moment was ruined by a tiny, “ow.”</p><p>NOPE! </p><p><b>“G-G-GET 0FF 0F ME!!!”</b> The glitch screamed, kicking and rolling like a child as he desperately tried to escape.</p><p>“Oof! H-hey, just chill-“ a hiss as heel connected with shin, “Fuck! DUDE, STOP! I ain’t gonna hurt yah!”</p><p>Error just screeched, voice devolving into beeps and static as he felt a crash slowly darkening the edges of his awareness.</p><p>“Of all the- ack!- fucking- hnnk!” Suddenly he was twisted around onto his front, arm pinned to his back as his attacker snarled, <b>“E N O U G H!”</b> </p><p>Error froze.</p><p>A quiet moment passed as both panted together on the floor, exhausted from the unexpected bout of rough housing; then, slowly, a pervading sense of calm settled between the two. Error was still scared, but as the minutes passed that terror began to morph into a more tolerable level of dread.</p><p>It was sorta nice, actually. Peaceful, if somewhat uncomfortable and completely horrible.</p><p>The Sans of this AU let out a deep sigh and shifted above him, “Damn, dude. Helping your ass is way too much work.” Helping? “Hey Alphys, you can come out now! This one isn’t gonna be escaping any time soon.”</p><p>“Oh, thank Stars!” Was the shaky reply, followed closely by the sounds of fabric shuffling and the slap of feet on tile, “A-are you okay? D-does anything hurt?”</p><p>“Nah, I’m fine- got some new bruises now, but nothing a good night’s sleep can’t handle.”</p><p>‘New bruises’? His opponent was already injured? He fell to an already weakened monster?? Error’s cheeks burned in humiliation. <em> The voices will never let me live this down! </em></p><p>“Well, t-that’s good.” Alphys stopped about three feet away, obviously too nervous to get close again; good. “So, um, what now?”</p><p>Their stares bore into the back of his skull and he huffed, turning to firmly face, uh, whatever was directly to his left.</p><p>The Sans sighed, “And now I find out if our dear, sweet patient will finally allow us to treat him without committing homicide.”</p><p><b>“It’s viruci-i-ide.”</b> The glitch grumbled under his breath.</p><p>“What was that?” The stupid abomination asked, “You’re going to do what I say so you don’t get smacked by a slipper again?”</p><p>Error let out a sound of protest, doing his best to glare over his shoulder, <b>“You-u-u wouldn’t dare.”</b></p><p>
  <em> “Try me, twitch boy.” </em>
</p><p>Needless to say he ended up agreeing. Alphys rushed away to stars knew where to gather functional, unbroken equipment and the glitch endured the further humiliation of being put into a princess carry and then carted off to a bed that hadn’t already suffered his presence. He made sure to be extra passively uncooperative while the other skeleton tucked him under the sheets, glaring forward into the darkness of his own sockets after failing to cross his arms.</p><p><b>“I will destroy e-e-everything you love.” </b>The glitch hissed, disturbed by the reminder.</p><p>A hand patted the undamaged portion of his skull, which he only slightly flinched away from, “Sure, sure- and then you’ll never get your arm back.”</p><p>What.</p><p>His thoughts were interrupted by the shifting of the mattress as someone laid across the foot of it with a yawn.</p><p><b>“What are you doing?”</b> Error demanded.</p><p>“What’s it look like? I’m taking a nap while Alphys gets the stuff.”</p><p><b>“I c-could kick you from here, you know.” </b>He pointed out, brow raised.</p><p>
  <em> “Not if you want to live.” </em>
</p><p>Error ended up deciding against that course of action.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Error: I AM A FEIRCE WARRIOR, NO MORTAL CAN STAND AGAINST ME!<br/>Sans: *raises slipper*<br/>Error: ONE MORTAL CAN STAND AGAINST ME.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Alphyne, Alphyne Everywhere.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Shhhhh...*passes this chapter over* Just accept this.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>In the early days of the Underground, oh...maybe only a few decades in, Golden Flower tea was considered the desperate man’s drink; something people drank when magic packed food ran low and hunger ran high. It was regarded as such because, at the time, no one was quite sure what part of the flower was considered poisonous- there was simply no easy way to tell. Some tried the petals, some tried the leaves, a few brave souls even tried their hand at the roots, but the results always turned out the same; either they were ill by the morning or perfectly fine.</p><p>It was really quite the gamble, too; should one ingest it and it turned out to be toxic, they risked a long and painful bedrest full of cold chills, fever, vomiting, and- well, one doesn’t need to be a genius to understand that illnesses of a certain nature can lead to...deadly consequences. This was, of course, before anyone realized that the reason there was no real consistency between brews was because the Underground was dealing with two different kinds of flowers: Buttercups and the aforementioned Golden Flowers. </p><p>The differences were so subtle it came as no surprise that few, if any, had realized what they were; and what was the most important fabled difference, you ask? It was simple really; a Golden Flower has a stalk on which a single bloom can grow, but a Buttercup has stems and thus can grow as many as eight blooms at a time. </p><p>That was it; that is the most notable difference. The flowers are the same, the greenery is the same, the width of the stems and the stalk are the same- even their rate of growth and the way they take root is the same. It is like looking at two pies and being told that one is a pumpkin pie and another is a sweet potato pie, and having to choose which one is which without tasting it. It was only thanks to Chara’s teachings that anyone had learned of such a subtle difference.</p><p>Asgore sighed as he watered his Throne Room of Flowers. There was one other difference of note; something hardly anyone had put any thought into before. Where a buttercup’s seeds were oval shaped and smooth, a Golden Flower’s seeds were circular and burr-like; the sort of thing one would notice clinging to their clothes or fur and swipe away, believing it to be nothing but a weed- and they were; weeds, that is. Any other flower that had somehow found its way down here had almost immediately been squashed down under the thriving, bountiful, and quite frankly aggressive and unbeatable little flowers; even the once feared Buttercups. </p><p>(However, hardly anyone paid any attention to how these flowers seeded back then. To pay attention was to have interest, and the few who turned their head where a golden flower grew did so with not so innocent interests in mind.)</p><p>It was a shame that Chara had not lingered in this realm long enough to see the physical proof of his influence on the monster’s world...and an even worse shame that he could not drag his poor brother (sweet, timid Asriel) towards a single patch of flowers with that unnerving smile paired with that all too familiar glint in his eye as he exclaimed, “See, Azzy? This is what I’ve been telling you about!” Then again, it was only due to the untimely absence of his children that any of these flowers had come to be. </p><p>Asgore loved these flowers, had pollinated and grown many of them from seed himself; hours and hours of crouching and digging and watering (his back was certainly not thanking him). He would give up every single one of them in a soulbeat for even just a chance at having his family back again.</p><p>A throat cleared behind him, “S-sir? You, um, summoned me?”</p><p>The great goat monster gingerly turned on his heels, painfully aware of every bloom under foot.</p><p>“Alphys! Welcome!” He called over jovially, both hands grasping the watering can firmly between them. He would not risk setting it down again. “Please, come in; there’s no need to hide in the doorway.”</p><p>The Royal Scientist- a small, yellow lizard monster in a lab coat with large lensed glasses that, unfortunately, tended to magnify her eyes to the size of large coins in the eyes of others- reminded the King a great deal of his first son Asriel; timid, shy, and, under it all, especially exuberant.</p><p>“S-sorry,” Alphys stuttered as she shuffled carefully through the maze of flowers, “I um, just didn’t want to interrupt-“ she cleared her throat again, this time with a faint red flush traveling down her neck, “What did you need? I-I-If you don’t mind me asking that is. <em> Ohstarsthatwassorudeofme- </em>“</p><p>It devolved a bit into worried, frustrated muttering; an unfortunate habit that Asgore had come to understand meant that the lizard was probably berating herself where normal ears could not (and perhaps did their best not to) hear.</p><p>“It is quite alright, As- Alphys. I was actually wondering if you had caught wind of the most recent field reports?” Asgore interrupted, thinking it best to stop her there before she went into a full meltdown again. That had already happened once, back when she was still new to the rank of Royal Scientist. Very unfortunate; he and Undyne did their best to prevent such an event from ever occurring <em> ever </em>again.</p><p>(Tori would have known <em> exactly </em>how to help.)</p><p>Once he had Alphys’ attention once more, he continued on. </p><p>“You see, Undyne has been receiving multiple alarming complaints about some sort of creature scaring the general populace in Waterfall. Until now we both thought it to be some rambunctious children playing a mean prank,” (Alphys cracked a smile) “But now we fear it might indeed be some sort of creature.” </p><p>The lizard scientist frowned, hands coming together nervously, “W-what sort of creature, sir?”</p><p>Asgore sighed, his grip on the watering can tightening ever so slightly, “Unfortunately, that is part of the main issue. Anyone who comes into contact with it suffers what appears to be permanent amnesia of the attack.”</p><p>Alphys’ brows furrowed behind her glasses and Asgore could almost hear her thinking, “Then how do they know they were attacked?”</p><p>In a much graver tone, the King continued, “As it is, just today I’ve been informed that a monster has gone missing after entering Waterfall. Gerson himself informed me of such at the request of a friend. He’s asking that a full investigation be launched while he gathers up a search party, and I am requesting that you and Undyne schedule a day or two together this next week and find out what this creature is.”</p><p>Alphys’ face went through a rainbow of emotions; shock, fear, worry, resolution- and an unsurprising amount of mortification, or was it infatuation? It was a bit hard to tell, as she had brought both hands up to hide her face, but she was also...dancing in place? </p><p><em> Ah, to be young and in love. </em> Asgore thought wistfully, a smile growing on the corners of his mouth. <em> What is it the kids say these days? ‘I am shipping it’? </em></p><p>“O-oh! But King Asgore, sir,” The lizard exclaimed, seemingly snapping out of, well, whatever that had been, “Who was it that went missing?”</p><p>Asgore’s smile fell back down as his gaze drifted to the flowers, “A young fire elemental named Fuku. She was barely into adulthood.”</p><p>A somber quiet fell between the two. It was a beautiful day outside, and yet it would have been far more appropriate had there been rain.</p><hr/><p>Alphys locked the automatic doors behind her with a sigh, leaning against the cold metal with a heavy soul. It wasn’t uncommon for a monster to die, in fact it happened much too often, especially from worksite accidents (a bad fall here, a cave in there- the unwary often learned quickly or died before they could), but few ever died at the hands of another being. Monster on monster violence heavily frowned upon and was not something the law took lightly; and the looming specter of the Judge was a concept that everyone learned to fear. Why anyone would test their luck on such a thing when death was almost <em> assured </em>was beyond the scientist. </p><p>This, however; this was almost worse somehow. It wasn’t a person with logical reasoning that could be found, taken in, and punished. This was a <em> creature; </em>something that may lack the ability to think beyond basic instinct- and if that was the case, then what was the biological imperative? Why ki- kidnap (“She’s not dead until they find her dust.” Alphys whispered to herself) a completely innocent monster? And what was up with those reports? How does one report being attacked when they can’t remember it ever happening??</p><p>There were too many questions to this mystery and not enough ways to get answers; not without further investigation, no doubt the same conclusion Asgore had made.</p><p>The lizard monster pushed back against the door, taking short steps towards her rolling chair where she collapsed onto it with a soft huff and dug around in her inventory for her phone. It was a rare thing that it wasn’t already in hand, but she hadn’t wanted it to go off while she spoke with the King; that would have just been the worst...Not that it ever really went off to begin with, but Alphys hadn’t gotten the job of Royal Scientist by not taking initiative. </p><p>(Yeah, that’s what we’ll call it. Initiative.)</p><p>Her contact list was maybe a bit short by normal standards, but then she never really used her phone for much besides the UnderNet, and that’s where all her friends were. Besides, she was never really all that great at talking to people over the phone. Or in general.</p><p>…..</p><p>……..</p><p>
  <em> Oh no, she actually had to call Undyne now. </em>
</p><p>Maybe- maybe she could just text her? Tell Undyne that she was too busy with Project McDoesn’texist and couldn’t call at the moment? Wait, no that wouldn’t work; Asgore’s requests always took precedence over any current projects unless doing so endangered the Underground- and obviously Alphys didn’t have any of those otherwise she wouldn’t have even left to meet with him. Plus, Asgore would have informed Undyne of such on the off chance anything terrible happened as a result. Alphys made reports too, you know.</p><p>Her frantic thoughts were interrupted by the opening theme song to Mew Mew Kissy Cutie; the caller ID on screen showing a picture of Undyne in armor mid spear throw with a vicious grin on her face, and the tiniest text right below it with just a series of heart emojis where a name should be.</p><p><em> Oh no, oh no, oh no; it’s her! Why is she calling </em> me <em> ?! </em> Alphys cried inwardly, outwardly letting out a screech of terror. She thought about just letting it ring, but Asgore had said that Undyne was already expecting Alphys to call her so if she let it ring then Undyne would know she was ignoring her and- NO. No, she couldn’t allow that to happen.</p><p>With a gulp the lizard monster hit the answer call button and brought it up to her ear, nerves making her palms sweaty.</p><p>“H-hello?”</p><p>“Hey Alphys! It’s me, Undyne!”</p><p>Alphys made a sound, something between a squeak and a laugh- a very awkward sound, she assures you.</p><p>“Hi! Undyne!” The scientist spun the chair side to side, trying to release some pent up anxiety, “What, um, w-what brings you to my side of things?”</p><p>Abort! Abort! Terrible flirting is terrible; be normal!</p><p>“What?” Alphys could almost imagine her shaking her head, “Well anyway; sorry for calling you so early, but I just couldn’t hold it back any longer!”</p><p>“‘H-hold back’?” The lizard repeated, soul jumping in her chest. Was-...was this a <em> Confession? </em></p><p>“Yeah!” Undyne continued, “See Asgore said you were probably going to call me sometime after twelve, but I got pretty tired of waiting and just decided to go ahead and call you instead!”</p><p><em> Oh. </em> Alphys’ shoulders fell, then her brows furrowed as she turned to her computer monitor. <em> Twelve? But wasn’t it just eleven-thirty a few- Holy Molly It’s Almost One! </em></p><p>Unperturbed by her friend’s (outward) silence, Undyne continued speaking in her typical harsh manner.</p><p>“So I was actually planning on patrolling through Waterfall tomorrow morning if you wanna, you know, investigate then?” (“T-tomorrow?” the scientist squeaked.) “If you’re not too busy or anything, that is- I don’t wanna mess up whatever you got going on. Or anything.”</p><p>“No, o-of course not! T-tomorrow works just fine!” Wait, what is she saying? “You s-said in the morning? What, um, w-what time would that be?” <em> What is she saying?! </em></p><p>On the other side of the call, Undyne- who was standing in the middle of Snowdin surrounded by training dog monsters in full armor (who were not so subtly listening in with one ear)- punched the air with a silent victory cry, a light blush growing on her cheeks.</p><p>She quickly pulled herself together, not wanting Alphys to think anything was up, “How does nine-thirty sound?”</p><p>“N-nine-thirty?” A soft hum as Al- well, really, who knew what she was doing at that very second.</p><p>(Freaking out. She was very much freaking out.)</p><p>“Y-yeah! I can do that!” The lizard finally said, “Meet you at the Welcome Sign?”</p><p>“Heck yeah!” the fish monster cheered, “Just make sure you wear something you don’t mind getting wet. Or dirty.” Was Doggo giving her a look? “HEY! GET BACK TO WORK!”</p><p>“U-um?”</p><p>Oh, woops. “Sorry, Al; I meant someone else. Nine-thirty at the Welcome Sign?”</p><p>“Y-yes!”</p><p>“Cool!” Undyne flashed a shark-like grin, “See you then!”</p><p>“S-see you then!” And then the call cut out. The tall fish stared down at the screen for a moment, excitement building before finally she shoved her phone into a pocket and turned to the suddenly unsure looking dog monsters behind her, a sharp glint in her eye.</p><p>“COME ON YOU SPINELESS FURBALLS! TEN MORE LAPS AROUND TOWN!”</p><p>Only Greater Dog seemed pleased with the new turn of events.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Alphys:<br/>Alphys: <em>OH. MY STARS?!</em><br/>Alphys: *incomprehensable screaming*</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. He sees you when your sleeping; he knows you're not awake...</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Haha, wow; it's been awhile, huh? Hehe...he...</p><p> </p><p>  <em>Imsosorryyall</em></p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sans awoke bleary-eyed and absolutely exhausted, his entire body weighed down by the heavy arms of gravity.</p><p>“Saaaans! It’s time to get up!” Papyrus called from the living room. Strange; usually his brother would come in to wake him up, but maybe he was busy with something. That had happened before.</p><p>...hadn’t it?</p><p>Groaning miserably into his pillowcase, Sans reluctantly pushed himself up onto a forearm and flopped over onto his back. His blanket folded uncomfortably under his backside as he did, so, grabbing the crumpled top edge of his blanket, the skeleton threw the fabric aside; and then he laid there, sockets half lidded and dimly glowing as he slowly gathered the will to stand. It wasn’t easy; he could already feel the dull throbbing in his joints and he just knew he was in for a fight the moment his feet touched wood floors- and Sans didn’t like fights, you know? He was more of a ‘glare from a distance’ sort of guy.</p><p>So that’s what he did. Sans turned his fuzzy gaze down onto his sock clad feet (What? It got cold, okay?) and glared for all he was worth at his equally fuzzy socks. Unfortunately, the Core lights were still out, so all he could actually see was whatever reflected the dim glow from his eyelights juuuust right (Dresser door knobs, shiny book spines, a white face in the corner of the room, the plastic of his alarm clock, etc,.) which meant no glaring at his feet from a distance until they bent to his will because the small bits of fabric were dark colors and thus couldn't be seen. Double damn.</p><p>“Sans? Are you up yet?”</p><p>“Hold on, Bro!” The elder called back groggily, voice creaky from sleep, “I’m gettin’ up! I’m gettin’ up!”</p><p>Knowing that now he <em>had</em> to get up, Sans very, very gingerly rolled over to the edge of his bed and onto his sore, pins and needles filled feet; groaning in quiet pain before putting his full weight onto the bottom of his feet and shambling quietly towards where he knew his dresser to be, guided by the faint glow of his own eyelights in the dark and his memory of the room layout. Luckily, finding the dresser was a lot easier than finding his courage, or Sans would have been in a lot of trouble at this point. Why? Well...Look, maybe he was just freaking himself out, but the white face he’d seen earlier- well, it was gone.</p><p><em>Okay, be reasonable Sans.</em> He told himself, reluctantly turning back to his dresser and blindly snatching up a shirt for himself, <em>It’s probably because you changed the angles. You’re not in bed anymore, so whatever was reflecting light obviously wouldn’t look the same now. I bet if we went back to that spot right now it would look exactly the same- maybe it’s even one of our old posters!</em></p><p>...Actually, that didn’t sound too unreasonable- how many times had he spooked himself on those posters? Dozens, no doubt.</p><p>Quietly reassured, Sans breathed out a quiet sigh of relief; shoulders falling flat as he more leisurely grabbed the rest of his outfit, hanging it over his forearm neatly as he prepared his outfit for the day.</p><p>✋︎ 🙵■︎□︎⬥︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ♍︎♋︎■︎ ⬧︎♏︎♏︎ ❍︎♏︎📬︎</p><p>The skeleton froze, terror surging through his bones. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t run. Something was whispering into the side of his skull, it’s voice echoing unnaturally as an unbelievably cold breeze wafted up Sans’ back.</p><p>❄︎◆︎❒︎■︎ ♋︎❒︎□︎◆︎■︎♎︎📪︎ ⬧︎□︎■︎🖴︎ ●︎♏︎⧫︎❼︎⬧︎ ♒︎♋︎❖︎♏︎ ♋︎ ●︎♓︎⧫︎⧫︎●︎♏︎📬︎📬︎📬︎♍︎♒︎♋︎⧫︎</p><p>A hand landed on his shoulder, colder than dry ice as it dug it’s fingers cruelly into his bone and twisted Sans around-</p><hr/><p>
  <br/>
  <strong>BWAA-BWAA-BWAA-BWAA-</strong>
</p><p>Sans was startled awake by the regrettably familiar screams of his alarm, breath coming out in harsh pants as his eyelights flickered side to side frantically. He could see the faint shine of faded gold and silver leaf on some of the spines of his books sitting in their cramped home on a bookshelf beside his bed, the flashing number lights on his plastic alarm making them appear and disappear ominously in red light- the same as the knobs on his dresser drawers, which glittered a tarnished gold against the wall at his feet.</p><p>Beside the dresser was the old, familiar pile of dirty clothes he’d been neglecting to wash for the past couple of days, but that didn’t hold the skeleton’s attention for long. Instead, once everything nearby had been documented and accounted for in his mind, Sans found his gaze locking onto the empty corner of his room. He felt like, if he looked away from that corner, something bad would happen to him.</p><p>
  <strong>BWAA-BWAA-BWAA-BWAA-</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>BWAA-BWAA-BWAA-BWAA-</strong>
</p><p><em>Oh, Stars damn it!</em> Turning onto his stomach, the spooked skeleton’s hand slammed down onto the large snooze button with a loud sound.</p><p>
  <strong>BWAA-BWAA-BWA-<em>Clunk.</em></strong>
</p><p>Blissful silence descended; the balance restored at last. Sans closed his burning sockets and dropped his face into his pillow, sighing quietly as tense shoulders fell back into place; the intense feeling of doom dissipating into smoke as the last vestiges of sleep finally let him go.</p><p>...What had he just been dreaming about, anyway?</p><p>Sans thought back, knowing he must have dreamt <em>something</em> if he woke up as scared as he’d been, but finding only faint flashes of feelings and impressions hanging around in the back of his skull. Great, another mystery nightmare; that was, what? The third time this week alone?</p><p>Groaning into his pillowcase and knowing there was no way he would be able to go back to sleep again now that he was wide-fucking-awake, Sans reluctantly pushing himself up onto his forearms, his spine protesting with soft cracks and pops as he moved- and then the rest of his body caught up with him.</p><p>“Mother <em>fucker,</em>” Sans hissed, twisting and flopping onto his back like a badly flipped pancake, his least aching arm coming up to rub at tired sockets as a yawn stretched his jaw wide open; wincing as that, too, let out the softest of cracks. Damn, he felt like he’d been hit with a bad puzzle again, or caught in one of Undyne’s surprise training regimes. Just what did he <em>do</em> yesterday?</p><p>Reluctantly grabbing the top edge of his blanket, Sans threw the fabric aside; then he laid there, sockets half lidded as he slowly gathered the will to stand. It wasn’t easy, he could already feel the dull throbbing in his joints and he just knew he was in for a fight the moment his feet touched wood floors, and Sans didn’t like fights; he was more of a ‘glare from a distance’ sort of guy, you know?</p><p>…Had he thought that already?</p><p>Unfortunately, the Core lights were still out, so all he could see was whatever reflected the dim glow from his eyelights juuuust right, which meant no glaring at his feet from a distance until they bent to his will. Double damn.</p><p>Huffing a great, defeated sigh, Sans reluctantly and very gingerly rolled over to the edge of his bed- and almost immediately misjudged where that edge was, falling off and clipping the corner of his bedside table as he fell flat onto his face with a dull thunk against the hardwood floor.</p><p>“Ah, fuck!” The skeleton hissed, sockets clenched tightly shut as he curled into a ball and held his aching skull; small, pained tears springing up in the corners. Fuckin ‘ell, that hurt!</p><p>A soft sigh whispered through the room as he cursed. The poor sentry almost didn’t notice until he heard his bed creak and fabric rustle above. Sans froze, soul stuttering in his chest as his senses flew into high gear. A moment past as he listened, tuning into the room around him much more intensely...</p><p>Nothing. Sans relaxed.</p><p><em>Just me then.</em> He thought, then grumbled as he shifted around on the floor, <em>Great, this is already turning out to be a wonderful day.</em></p><p>As soon as his knees were under him, the skeleton pulled a hand away from his aching noggin and patted around for something solid enough to hold his weight. That thing turned out to be his traitorous bedside table, and with a great huff the skeleton was shifting half his weight onto it. It gave an unnerving creak, reminding him exactly how old that bit of furniture was getting, but Sans still found himself getting safely onto his feet. His sore, pins and needles filled feet.</p><p>Well, there was a quick way to fix that; sort of. Shambling quietly towards where he knew his dresser to be, guided by the faint glow of his own eyelights and his memory of the room layout, Sans grabbed his clothes and piled them neatly into his arms; beginning to turn in place and head for the bathroom for his well deserved shower- and was suddenly hit with the intense feeling of deja vu.</p><p>He...No, Sans had <em>definitely</em> done this already, he <em>swore</em> he’d done this already; but how? He’d just woken up, there was no way he’d been able to do it today...</p><p>At a loss, the skeleton forced his focus onto other, more manageable things- like finally getting that shower- and started turning again, getting about a full ninety degrees before his aching bones reminded him that, oh yeah, <em>that hurt</em>; so instead Sans gathered his available magic and attempted a teleport.</p><p>There was only one bathroom in the entire house; a decently sized little room that held it’s shower-tub comfortably snug against the wall farthest from the door and a little countertop and sink combo that hugged the corner closest to it. The floor was a soft cream colored tile that crawled halfway up the wall behind the tub and matched the countertop almost perfectly- and in complete contrast to that (and the entire house really) was a plain grey fabric wallpaper with subtle dark stripes and <em>bright yellow handprints.</em></p><p>Sans pretended not to see them as he appeared in the room, instead turned his gaze down to the floor- and straight to the familiar white-yellow pile of fabric that had somehow wandered out of his room and piled up on the bathroom floor at his feet. They were definitely dirty too. Who knew how long it had been sitting there; hours, days? He was pretty sure his record that one time had been an entire month before Papyrus tripped over a pile and consequently banned clothing outside the bedrooms...or was that a sock?</p><p>Sans picked one of the articles of twisted fabric up between his toes, lifting it up to his waiting hand. Was it lazy? Heck yeah. Did he care? Not at that moment, no. He was sore; he was allowed to be ridiculous!</p><p>The fabric made little noise other than a tiny whump as gravity unrolled it from it’s bundled state, getting pinched and pulled into two separate directions by boney fingers. Sans let out a little noise of surprise as a familiar faded cat photo popped out at him. Oh! His pajamas! Cool, that’s one mystery solved then. He tossed them right back onto the floor, almost in the exact spot they’d been only moments earlier, before a thought smacked right into him. If those were his pajamas, then what was he wearing right now?</p><p>A quick glance down made him grimace, thoughts immediately jumping to how he would definitely have to put his bedsheets in the wash after he’s clean as dirt smudged sweatpants and a wrinkled T-shirt graced his sight. Curiously, a faint wiff of...something wafted up to his face and, after pulling a bit of his shirt up to his nose hole, instantly cringed back as the smell of sweat, smoke...burgers?…and…</p><p>Wait. <em>Sniff, sniff-sniff.</em></p><p><em>Is that-...is that fish???</em> Sans wondered, face incredulous. He could even feel his left socket twitch as his mind desperately scratched through his memories for an explanation. Why did he smell like <em>fish</em> of all things? He hated fish!</p><p>Then, as if a giant brick with the words <em>dunce</em> flew through the air and smacked him dead in the back of his skull, Sans finally remembered the day before.</p><p>“...Fuck, I really should have asked Doggo to help me.”</p><hr/><p>It was about halfway through his well deserved, well heated, <em>non-fishy smelling</em> shower that Sans realized; <em>Wait, how did I get home?</em></p><p>His memory, unfortunately, had no answers for him; so the skeleton was left to wonder as he eventually finished showering, dried off, dressed in fresh clothes, and teleported back into his room after grabbing both pajamas and nasty clothes from earlier. The Core lights must have come on outside, because the skeleton had no trouble seeing where he’d landed thanks to the soft white light coming through his window; and without a second thought Sans threw his clothes onto the dirty clothes pile by the dresser and turned towards his bed to strip it (because ew, dirt).</p><p>It was in obvious disarray from earlier, piled up in odd spots that almost looked like someone had been buried under it all; but Sans was quick to shrug off the spooky thought with a quiet laugh at himself. Man, he really was jumpy today, wasn’t he?</p><p>His smile stayed on his face all the way up to the moment he pulled back the comforter and revealed a sleeping skeleton in his bed. A very familiar, twitching skeleton.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Sans:<br/>Sans:<br/>Sans: *Gently puts the covers back over Error*<br/>Sans: Nope.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. HIATUS</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Yup, you’ve read the chapter title correctly. I am going on a hiatus. </p>
<p>It’s official now.</p>
<p>The dreaded hiatus is now cannon.</p>
<p>I can’t really say I have an explanation why and it’s not from a lack of love for this story and you guys. I just seem to be stuck right now as far as this story goes. So for now I’m slapping that sticker on and waiting to get unstuck. Wish me luck.</p>
<p>WARNING: shameless plug in incoming!</p>
<p>I started a side blog on Tumblr! So all of you readers out there who have a story in mind but for some reason can’t get it out onto paper, take a look over there! </p>
<p>https://ghostlivehere.tumblr.com/</p>
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